Domestic Policy and Politics

The Politics of Bipartisanship

Norman J. Ornstein is a resident scholar at AEI. He also serves as an election analyst for CBS News and writes a weekly column called "Congress Inside Out" for Roll Call newspaper. He has written for the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, and other major publications. He is also the author of numerous books. “Today, instead of viewing the other party as adversaries they tend to think of them as the enemy. The enemy you want to destroy. And so it’s a much different dynamic. That is the real difference between now and the past.”

-- 04/10 >>>

Obama as a Reconstructive President

John W. Sloan is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Houston. He is the author of several books, his latest book is “FDR and Reagan: Transformative Presidents with Clashing Visions.” “Obama certainly has the opportunity to be a reconstructive president. He has come into office after the failed presidency of George W. Bush who claimed he was trying to fulfill the conservative visions of Ronald Reagan. Bush’s failures are giving Obama the authority to promote new policies that violate the dogmas of Reagan’s conservative regime such as raising taxes on the rich and increasing governmental regulations.”

-- 03/03 >>>

The Art of Analysis

Interview with Stuart D. Goldman, Specialist in Russian and Eurasian Affairs, Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division, Congressional Research Service. “We have a lot of competitors out there. Many think tanks generate reports, position papers and so on. The big difference is that they all have a policy agenda they keep pushing and we don’t. So our comparative advantage is, whether it’s a very conservative republican or a really liberal democrat, if they ask CRS a question they know they will get a straight answer.” -- 02/12 >>>

A Running Start

Stephen Hess is a Distinguished Research Professor at the George Washington University and a Senior Fellow Emeritus of Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution. He is a veteran staffer of the Eisenhower and Nixon administrations and a former advisor to Presidents Ford and Carter. Hess is the author of “What Do We Do Now? A Workbook for the President-elect” published by the Brookings Institution Press. “The outgoing president always makes decisions that influence the incoming president because it’s a continuum. The system doesn’t stop and start again when a new president comes in. So the outgoing president as well as the outgoing Congress have commitments, they have treaty obligations in place, they have financial obligations, and in some cases traditions. These all bind the incoming president.” -- 12/12 >>>

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